Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #7

Game: June 10, 2012

Buzzards clipped by Dragons, 13-7

The Gold Country Ol' Buzzards circled in on James Field in Auburn for a 10 o'clock game against the Folsom Dragons. On another great day for baseball with sunny weather and temps in the mid-80s, this game pitted the red hot Dragons at 6-1 and leading the division with the second place Buzzards (5-2-1).

In this battle of right-handers, pitching for Dragons, wearing their green-jerseys with white pants, was Jeff 'High Kick' Hansen #11. Taking the mound for the Buzzards was Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe #32.

The Buzzards started well and threatened in their half of the first inning. Dave 'Evy' Everingham opened the game for the Buzzards with a deep lead-off double to the left-center field gap. Evy later moved to third with less than two outs, but was left stranded on the corner bag as the inning ended.

The Dragons scored a quick run in the top of the second inning on a hit, wild pitch, and a run-scoring single to right field by John Daly. JD had a good day. He went 2 for 2, both run-scoring singles in his first two at-bats and then two walks, one for an RBI.

The game was tight through three innings with the Dragons having a 1-0 lead. Then came the fourth inning horror show. Big Mac tweaked the inner thigh muscle of his left leg throwing to the fourth batter and signaled to manager Tony to come to the mound. Mac then came out of the game and was replaced by the left fielder, Mark 'Weed' Fowler #11.

Weed could take as many pitches as he needed to warm-up under the injury replacement rules. Mark did not take lots of warm-up pitches - there was some umpire grumbling after eight - and he may not have been really ready as the inning continued with the bases loaded. It looked good when he got the next batter to pop-up to Troy 'Nogy' Nogosek playing third base. But then the inning went south as the next five batters got on base with three hits, a walk and a hit batter. An infield fly for the second out to Troy at third stalled the parade of Dragons crossing the plate.  After another walk to the shoe-box size strike zone, Weeder was replaced by center fielder, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26. Welzy also missed the small strike zone on the next two batters before striking out the 15th batter of the inning. 

The damage was nine runs on seven hits with five walks and one hit batter and a 10 to nothing Dragon lead. After that bad inning, the Buzzards responded by scoring in every inning for the remainder of the game.

In the bottom of the long fourth inning, the Buzzards scored two runs. Evy led-off with a flare single to right field on a 1-2 pitch. Welzy followed with a nice bunt single up the third base line. Later with two outs and runners at third and second, Kevin 'Flash' Krantz hit a solid line drive to left field to score the first two Buzzard runs.

The Dragons got three more runs in the fifth inning with a hit batter and four singles. The Buzzards fought back with three runs in their half of the fifth. Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray led off the inning with a hard smash double to the fence in left field. With one out Tony 'Mongoose' Brashear singled on the first pitch to left field putting runners at the corners. After getting the coaches' signal, Mongoose took off for second base on the third pitch. The throw from JD went through to the bag as Pete took off for home on the catcher's release. The lighter and speedier Mongoose easily beat the throw and threw in a nice slide as the Baron crossed home plate on the risky play.

After a strike-out and now with two outs, Don 'Redondo' Colbert hit an 0-2 pitch deep to left field for a double driving in a chugging Mongoose. Batting next, Evy hit a hard bouncer through the left side for a single scoring Redondo from second for the third run. Welzy followed with a sharp bouncer up the middle for his first non-bunt hit since May 20th, but the inning ended before any more scoring action. The score after five innings was 13 - 5.

The Buzzards scored again and drew a little closer with a run in the bottom of the sixth. The Dragons changed pitchers and brought in Eric Guimont # 27 to start the inning. With one out, Flash hit an 0-2 pitch for a single to center field. Flash then stole second base for his third SB of the game. Later with two outs, the Baron hit a high fly to deep left field that was lost in the sun by the fielder and played into a run-scoring single.

The Buzzard defense had held the Dragons for the last two innings and entered the seventh frame down 13-6, but the clock was working against the Buzzards with only 15 minutes remaining. The Buzzards went down swinging but scored one last run before the inning ended.

Mongoose or is that Honey Badger started the inning off with a lined single to left. Skipping the kicked-out Scott 'Donut' Reeves in the batting order, Evy then hit a one-out looping single to right field for his fourth hit of the day and moved Tony to second. Mongoose scored on a fielder's choice by TWelz to end the Buzzard scoring. The final score was 13-7 Dragons.

The Buzzard offense did not break through with runs until the fourth inning of a seven inning game. Interestingly, both teams got 14 hits. The Dragons also received seven walks and two hit batters. The Buzzards had no walks or hit batters. Buzzards had three doubles, Dragons had one. The Dragons bunched their hits better and took advantage of a fourth inning umpire sponsored walk-a-thon.

The offense did get 14 hits and seven runs which will win a lot of games, but not after a 10-run head start. The hit club for the game included Redondo and Wookie with one hit each; the Baron, Flash, Mongoose and Welzy got two hits; and Evy had four hits. Dave was clutch all day at the plate and went 4 for 4 with a double, but only scored one run, ouch. The all important ribbies were driven in by: the Baron, Evy, Flash (2), Redondo and Welzy.

The infield played well and handled all seven ground ball and six pop-up opportunities for outs, but no double plays. The speedy outfield covered the ground and cut-off some of those long hits and turned doubles into singles. There were two outfield fly-outs in the game. The catcher, Donut, threw out the lead-off runner in the third inning. Catching duties were shared by Donut and Milli. Scott was sent packing in the fifth frame by the home plate ump for tossing his bat in disgust at the bad strike zone after his at-bat.

It was a good game with a lousy ending. The Dragons had it too easy and got the bounces. Next time will be a different story.

Buzzard Notes #1: The Father's Day game this Sunday will be at Rusch Park in Citrus Heights at 10 am. We play the last place Yankees and it appears will have enough players in spite of the Father-Son Tournament in town that weekend at McAuliffe.

Buzzard Note #2: The KAHI Radio Game will be played on July 29th, James Field at 2 o'clock. Radio commercials professionally produced by the station are available for $50. The radio spots will be played numerous times throughout the game and will be part of the recorded game. This is a good opportunity for the small business owners to 'suck it up' and buy a radio commercial. Thanks. BBQ after the game.